Thursday, 4 February 2016

BLOG TOUR: Fighting Solitude (On the Ropes, Book 3) by Aly Martinez

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fighting solitude it's live.jpg


Fighting Solitude is Book Three in the On The Ropes Series by Aly Martinez and is Quarry’s highly anticipated story.


Now Available!
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1NU89lo


**Each book in the series can be read as a standalone**


fighting solitude cover.jpg

Blurb


I was born a fighter. Abandoned by my parents, I spent my life forging my own path—one guided by my fists and paved with pain.

Untouchable in the ring, I destroyed everyone who faced me, but that’s where my victories ended. Outside the ropes, I repeatedly failed the few people who loved me. Including my best friend, Liv James—the one person I’d die to protect.

Even though I didn’t deserve her, Liv never stopped believing in me. Never gave up. Never let go. After all, she understood what I’d lost, because she’d lost it too.

Liv was everything to me, but she was never truly mine.

That was going to change.

I lost my first love, but I refused to lose my soulmate.

Now, I’m on the ropes during the toughest battles of my life.

Fighting to be the man she deserves.

Fighting the solitude of our pasts.

Fighting for her.

 
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Excerpt


Fighting Solitude
Prologue

“Mia!” I shouted.

It was worthless. She’d been deaf since the day I met her.

She’d never once heard my voice.

She’d never heard the deep rumble of my laugh when she was excited, signing so fast I could barely keep up.

She’d never heard my content sigh when she barged into the locker room after a fight—just her presence soothed the lingering madness brewing within me.

She’d never heard me whispering my deepest fears into her ear as she fell asleep on top of me.

She’d never heard the reverence in which I cried her name each and every time I took her body.

And she’d never once heard the ease in which the words I love you tumbled from my lips as I stared into her deep, jade green eyes.

But as I screamed her name while watching her petite body seizing in the passenger seat beside me, I’d never needed her to hear me more.

“Mia. Oh God. I’ve got you, baby.”

She was still thrashing violently as I made my way around to her door, yanking it open while pleading with whatever god was willing to help.

When she stilled, a whole new level of silence filled the air around us. It wasn’t the absence of sound.

It was the absence of life.

“Mia, breathe!” I roared as her chest remained agonizingly still. “Help me!” I screamed at the closed emergency room doors, but no medical savior rushed out with the miracle I so desperately needed.

My hands shook wildly as I released her lifeless body from the seatbelt.

“I’ve got you, just hang on. Please just hang on, Mia,” I whispered lifting her into my arms and sprinting through the sliding doors. “I need a doctor! She’s not breathing!”

Nurses rushed towards me in slow motion as the seconds without air in her lungs passed at a terrifying speed.

Breathe.

A doctor appeared with a gurney and quickly took her from my arms.

The immediate loss was staggering.

Hope became my only solace.

She needed help that I wasn’t capable of giving her, but that didn’t stop me from following close behind as they rolled her away. I was on the verge of self-destructing; letting her out of my sight wasn’t an option.

I stood motionless in the doorway while doctors and nurses swarmed around her. Their mouths moved frantically, but without my hearing aids I was worthless to make out the words their faint voices carried.

I never wore my hearing aids when I was with Mia. There was no point. She rarely spoke with her voice.

We’d spent four years building a relationship with our hands.

Those hands had told me animated stories that made me laugh until my face hurt from smiling.

They’d fought with me relentlessly, but always ended the night raking down my back in silent ecstasy.

Her fingers had fluidly signed I love you more times than I could ever count—or forget.

But as I felt the nurse attempting to physically remove me from the room, my eyes became fixated on her limp hand dangling off the side of the bed. It was the only sight more frightening than watching her flail mid-seizure.

It ripped the heart straight from my chest.

That hand was supposed to be full of life.

It was the very essence of Mia.

Pale.

White.

Still.

Oh God
.

Sucking in a deep breath, I held it until the room began to spin.

It provided me no relief even as it forced me to my knees.

There would be no distraction from this.

I was going to lose her.

Yet another woman I couldn’t save.

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Review
RATING:




OMG!!! I FLOVE THESE PAGE BOYS!!!

Sigh… here we are, at the end of the series… sigh… If as a reader, it feels weird letting a series go, it just makes sense that it can be difficult for an author to part ways with it and the characters in it… sigh…

I can’t help that as I’m typing this, I keep thinking of the series as a whole, not just this book; how enamored I am with the Page boys and how nice to read each one of them get their happy endings. When I read the first book, Fighting Silence, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Regardless, I was hooked. When I got my hands on the second book, Fighting Shadows, I was giddy ‘cause then I knew what I was in for.

Then here we are with the third book, Quarry’s story. I eagerly waited for this release. He was just really adorable as a kid in a sweet punk-ass kinda bratty way in the previous books, and I’m dying to read how he turned out as a man. And no disappointment here at all, none!!! I’ve loved his character right from the start and to see him turn out the way he turned out, dang, what more can a girl wish for!

Quarry and Liv’s story started from childhood. They’ve been friends for ages, but something happen that led to years with them being apart. They reconnected but certain things have changed. They both went thru a loss and what felt after was a second chance.

Liv has been in love with Quarry pretty much for her entire life. She’s a girly tomboy, if that makes sense. She’s funny, she’s caring, she’s an amazing friend, to a fault, and she knows Quarry like no one else.

Quarry… oh Quarry, Quarry… He’s not perfect by any means. He’s quick-tempered, clueless at times, but I just chalk it up to him just being a dude. Oh, but he’s sweet, he’s funny, he’s sensitive, he’s thoughtful, he’s… sigh… swoon!!!

Quarry and Liv together, I agree, they’re not wrong. In fact, they’re perfect!

GAH, my thoughts just keep circling over the fact that I just totally love this series!!!

So that epilogue? Umm, yah, perfection!!! Not gonna lie, I shed a happy tear or two. How can I not?!?!! Sigh…

I’m somehow not surprised that Aly took certain turns that I didn’t expect. I felt the same away about her previous books as well. I like how when I think she’ll start rightside, she’ll go left. For me, it created the right angst and played with my emotion just right. And as she took me thru the lives of these Page boys, she caught me off guard, made me care, gave me giggles, managed to make me tear up, and made me fall in love with all of them.

I heart Till. I heart Flint. Most of all, I heart Quarry. Every. Single. Day.



Fighting Silence (Book One) On the Ropes
ONLY $0.99


Fighting Shadows (Book Two) On The Ropes

About the Author

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Born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, Aly Martinez is a stay-at-home mom to four crazy kids under the age of five, including a set of twins. Currently living in South Carolina, she passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a glass of wine at her side.

After some encouragement from her friends, Aly decided to add “Author” to her ever-growing list of job titles. Five books later, she shows no signs of slowing. So grab a glass of Chardonnay, or a bottle if you’re hanging out with Aly, and join her aboard the crazy train she calls life.


GIVEAWAY
$50 (Winners Choice) Book Retailer Gift Card

THANK YOU!


Thanks for dropping by!

~Leftie


EXCERPT REVEAL: Ink & Lies by SL Jennings

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Prologue

You know that pivotal moment in every love story, when the hero or heroine makes an imperative move that leaves the other with a life-altering choice? Whether it be a pronouncement of love (I’ve been in love with you my entire life, and I don’t care that you’re my stepbrother) or a salacious secret (I’m pregnant and the baby isn’t yours) or a shocking decision (I’ve decided to embrace what I am… I’m transitioning into a unicorn, and I’m pregnant by my stepbrother), we can always count on this familiar occurrence.
I’ve always deemed them cliché yet necessary in the romance genre. A good plot twist is as vital to a story as its characters. Without it, the hero and heroine would have no reason to change, to evolve. They’d have no reason to step out on faith and madness and take hold of their destiny. Take hold of their story.
I once lived for the perfect plot twist.
I just never expected to actually live it.
I look down at my boarding pass for the eightieth time in the last fifteen minutes. Gate 3B, Seat 2A. GEG to LAX. Final boarding in…now.
Sixteen hours ago, I succumbed to the insanity of feeling, and made my crucial confession. I began that almighty trek up a story’s climactic mountain. And every hour, every minute, since, I’ve waited for her to make her choice.
To make me her choice.
The attendant glares at me from over her intercom receiver and announces that the gate for flight D5611 will be closing in sixty seconds. She’s saying it for only me, because I’m the only one here. Waiting. Crumbling.
I take one last look down the corridor that leads to security. I just knew that she’d show up, racing through the airport, screaming for someone to stop the plane. That was how I’d imagined my story…our story. The greatest cliché of all, and I still couldn’t breathe it into fruition. I still couldn’t get her to read between the lines scrawled on my heart.
I guess the most epic romances are still tucked away within the pages of her favorite novels, safely swathed in inked lies and faded paper promises. Forever fictional. Just like love.

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Are you ready to meet Rhys & Fi in this romantic stand alone
releasing February 9th!

Pre-order for ONLY $0.99 NOW!

**Additional retailers coming soon**




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Blurb

From International Best Selling Romance Novelist, Hope Hughes, comes a gripping, heartfelt tale of two lovers, fighting for the freedom to…

No. Scratch that. Too cheesy.

…two people, torn apart by the tumultuous tides of life, only to discover refuge in…

WTF? What does that even mean? DELETE.

…two people, confused as sh!t as to where they should be and who they should love and none of this means a damn thing because it’s all lies!
Lies.
I’m not Hope Hughes. I’m not some fierce woman romance machine. Hell, I’m not even a woman.
I’m a liar.
And while I refuse to believe my own BS, deceit masked in heartfelt phrases of love and devotion, I want to make her believe them. Because maybe—just maybe—if she can find the soul within my words, she’ll also be able to find the truth scribbled on my heart.
You see, I once lived for the perfect plot twist.
I just never expected to actually live it.
This is my story. Well, maybe her story. I just wish I could make it our story.
The one I’m still writing.

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About the Author:
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S.L. Jennings is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author of contemporary and paranormal romance, reality TV junkie, obsessive coffee drinker and collector of crazy.


Stalk Her: Website | Facebook | Twitter |Goodreads




THANK YOU!

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Wednesday, 3 February 2016

REVIEW: The Subs Club by JA Rock

RATING:







Blurb
A year ago, my best friend Hal died at the hands of an incompetent “dom.” So I started the Subs Club, a private blog where submissives can review doms and call out the douche bags. 
A perfect example of the kind of arrogant a$$hole I mean? The Disciplinarian. He has a pornstache. He loves meat, stoicism, America, and real discipline. And he thinks subs exist to serve him. 
But . . . not everything about him is awful. His Davy Crockett act just seems like a cover for his fear of intimacy, and part of me wants to show him it’s okay to get close to people. And, I mean, sue me, but I have fantasized about real discipline. Not role-play, but like, Dave, you’re gonna be thirty in four years and you still work in a mall; get your ass in gear or I’ll spank it. 
Not that I’d ever trust anyone with that kind of control. 
I’m gonna redefine “battle of wills” for the Disciplinarian. Or I’m gonna bone him. It’s hard to say. 
—Dave
Review

This is my first JA read. I read some reviews from Goodreads friends. What can I say, monkey see, monkey do. HAH!

I’m glad I read it. It had funny moments, that’s for sure; which is what got me interested in the first place. But it’s more than that. Four friends are recovering from an unexpected death of a friend while in a scene. Each one is dealing with it in their own way. This is Dave’s way of dealing with it. Along the way, he met The Disciplinarian, whose name also happened to be David. Yup, 2 Davids. And so began an interaction meant to provide what each other needs.

Dave, our main voice of the story, had an ulterior motive when he reached out to The Disciplinarian, or D, the first time. But as things progressed, obviously, David started feeling differently.

Dave is one bratty kid, but I get and like him. He’s cheeky and funny. But beyond that, he cares deeply for his friends. I found D to be one serious dude, some kind of Renaissance man, almost. In my head, neither one is typical H’s, especially D. David doesn’t call him Pornstache for nothing. Put them together though, they have both funny and introspective interactions. 

And Dave's friends play quite the roles as well. After all, these friends are big parts of his life. There's easy camaraderie. While they have their funny moments, I think it's important to keep in mind that they're all dealing with something big and emotional as well. Kamen may just be my favorite of all of them.

BDSM is not a theme I usually read in romance, let alone m/m. I have a low threshold for the different kinks in this lifestyle. So call me a wuss, but this did push my limits a bit. Reading this was almost like an education at the very least. I don’t fully understand the dynamics of these kinds of relationship but I think I do get the underlying purpose, the need it fulfills on either side.

Regardless of all that, considering this is not my cuppa', I really did enjoy this book just as I anticipated. I get the humor, but there’s more emotion than that. It touched on dealing with grief, discovering about one’s self, and what trust means in these relationships.

The rest of the series focuses on the rest of the friends. They each get their own story. As curious as I am, I don’t think I’m ready to read the rest at this point, but maybe someday…


Thanks for dropping by!

~Leftie


Tuesday, 2 February 2016

RELEASE BLITZ: Fighting Solitude by Aly Martinez


fighting solitude release blitz.jpg

fighting solitude it's live.jpg

Fighting Solitude is Book Three in the On The Ropes Series by Aly Martinez and is Quarry’s highly anticipated story.

Now Available!
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1NU89lo

**Each book in the series can be read as a standalone**



fighting solitude cover.jpg

Blurb

**Special Pre-order Pricing!**

I was born a fighter. Abandoned by my parents, I spent my life forging my own path—one guided by my fists and paved with pain.
Untouchable in the ring, I destroyed everyone who faced me, but that’s where my victories ended. Outside the ropes, I repeatedly failed the few people who loved me. Including my best friend, Liv James—the one person I’d die to protect.
Even though I didn’t deserve her, Liv never stopped believing in me. Never gave up. Never let go. After all, she understood what I’d lost, because she’d lost it too.
Liv was everything to me, but she was never truly mine.
That was going to change.
I lost my first love, but I refused to lose my soulmate.
Now, I’m on the ropes during the toughest battles of my life.
Fighting to be the man she deserves.
Fighting the solitude of our pasts.
Fighting for her.

fighting solitude.jpg


Fighting Silence (Book One) On the Ropes
ONLY $0.99

Fighting Shadows (Book Two) On The Ropes

About the Author

aly martinez.jpg

Born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, Aly Martinez is a stay-at-home mom to four crazy kids under the age of five, including a set of twins. Currently living in South Carolina, she passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a glass of wine at her side.
After some encouragement from her friends, Aly decided to add “Author” to her ever-growing list of job titles. Five books later, she shows no signs of slowing. So grab a glass of Chardonnay, or a bottle if you’re hanging out with Aly, and join her aboard the crazy train she calls life.





THANK YOU!

Thanks for dropping by!

~Leftie

Monday, 1 February 2016

BLOG TOUR: Happily Ever Ninja by Penny Reid

HappilyEverNinja_Tour


Happily Ever Ninja by Penny Reid 
Publication Date: 
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Humor

cover

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes

From the USA Today Best Selling Author of ‘Truth or Beard’ There are three things you need to know about Fiona Archer… I would tell you what they are, but then I’d have to kill you. But I can tell you that Fiona’s husband—the always irrepressible and often cantankerous Greg Archer—is desperately in love with his wife. He aches for her when they are apart, and is insatiable when they are together. Yet as the years pass, Greg has begun to suspect that Fiona is a ninja. A ninja mom. A ninja wife. A ninja friend. After fourteen years of marriage, Greg is trying not to panic. Because Fiona’s talent for blending in is starting to resemble fading away. However, when unexpected events mean Fiona must take center stage to keep her family safe, her response stuns everyone—Greg most of all. It seems like Greg’s wish has come true. Except… not. When all is said and done, can Greg handle this new version of his wife? Will his irrepressible cantankerousness push her away? Or can the couple find a way forward without either being forced to step back into the shadows? This is a full length, 100k word novel, and is the 5th book in the Knitting in the City Series. All books in the series can be read as a standalone except book #1.5

About the Author

SEX! It all started with sex, between my parents. Personally I don’t like thinking about it, but whatever works for you is a-ok with me. No judgment. The sex happened in California and much of my life also occurred in that state until I moved from the land of nuts (almonds), wine, silicon… boobs, and heavy traffic to the southeast US. Like most writers I like to write, but let’s get back to sex. Eventually I married and gave birth to 2 small people-children (boy-6, girl-4 as of this writing).
By day I’m a biomedical researcher with focus on rare diseases. By night I’m a knitter, sewer, lino block carver, fabric printer, soap maker, and general crafter. By the wee hours of the morning or when I’m intoxicated I love to listen to the voices in my head and let them tell me stories. I hope you enjoy their stories.


IndieSageBlogger

Thanks for dropping by!

~Leftie

RELEASE BLITZ: Low by Mary Elizabeth




Title: Low
Series: Low #1
Author: Mary Elizabeth
Genre: Romantic Suspense
 Release Date: February 1, 2016



Blurb

It’s hard living on the wrong side of the tracks.

Lowen Seely has a criminal record to prove it. Determined not to follow in his father’s footsteps, he fights instinct and tries honesty. But hunger becomes painful, and bills are due. Forced to choose between what is right and wrong, the boy from the hood learns abiding by the rules is nearly impossible when corruption is in your blood.

Falling for an outlaw has changed everything.

Poesy Ashby is the definition of ride or die, even when it means turning her back on freedom. The girl from the suburbs gives conformity the middle finger. Bonnie and Clyde have nothing on her love story.

On the run with consequences in the rearview mirror, Lowen and Poesy accept the truth: they are the bad guys.

But can they get away with their crimes?





Purchase Links

99c

AMAZON US / UK






Excerpt

“Keep the engine running,” I say. “If I’m not out in five minutes, leave.”

Poe nods her head, but doesn’t argue.

When the nine o’clock hour comes, both she and I watch the clock on the dashboard turn to one minute after.

“You’ll need to keep your mask on, Poesy. Make sure none of your hair is showing,” I say. “Keep your head down the entire time.”

“Okay,” she answers in a small voice.

“If you see cops—”

“I know what to do, Lowen. I know you want me to leave you.” She sighs. “But I don’t know if I can.”

Despite our circumstances, I smirk. “Hopefully you won’t have to.”

At nine thirty, Poe and I switch seats, and she gets behind the wheel while I load the pistol. With hands that shake uncontrollably, I place the ski mask over my head but don’t pull it down my face. I help Poesy with hers, tucking in every stray strand of hair so they remain unseen.

She grabs my wrist, and our eyes meet. I see fear combined with love and loyalty in her stare.

I kiss her knuckles and promise with the chance of lying, “We’re going to be okay.”

Unlike when we drove into the garage, the streets are alive and filled with a variety of automobiles, and dirty sidewalks carry several pedestrians. The forty-second drive to the bank feels like forty years. Thick blood courses through my veins, and I feel it flow through arteries and vessels, nourishing muscle and bone. My head echoes with the thump, thump, thump of my hard heartbeat. Every breath is shallower than the one before it.

“Pull down your mask,” I say, but my voice sounds foreign and feels a million miles away.

As Poe drives into California Credit Union’s parking lot, I grip the cold steel in my hand.

The edges of my vision blur; I’m blinded by adrenaline.

My skin crawls like I’m covered in spiders; I’m delirious with edginess.

“Your ski mask,” Poesy shrieks. “Cover your f*cking face, Lowen.”

My girl reaches over and pulls it down for me. The car stops to a screeching halt, and reality crashes into me in a brutal rush, stripping me of air and voice.

“If we’re in this, you need to go,” Poesy says in a calm but stern tone, hidden behind her black mask.

There’s peace in her eyes.

There’s strength in the girl who stayed with me when I was locked up.

The one who’s remained by my side, believing and starving all at the same time.

With the gun in my hand and determination in my heart, I leave Poesy in the car and push open the glass double doors into the bank.

As I step foot onto the burgundy carpet, I yell, “Everyone down on the f*cking floor!”



Review
RATING:




I tend to stay away from reads like this -- young characters and lots of angst. But for some reason, the cover grabbed me as soon as I laid eyes on it. Then the blurb intrigued me equally.

The blurb gives you an idea of what you're in for. A Bonnie-and-Clyde-esque story.

My heart broke repeatedly for these kids, especially Low; the cards that they're dealt with, it's a reality for some, unfortunately. I wasn't condoning their actions and decisions, yet I found myself doing so at the same time, unconsciously, I think.

It's definitely not a light read. This is told completely from Low's POV. In doing so, I felt every ounce of his desperation and hopelessness about their situation, and his love for Poe. In an ideal world, no youth should ever go through what Low went thru bec that means we failed as a society. In reality, we actually have, and I guess Low, in a way, is a representation of those youth. I think Mary Elizabeth captured that reality perfectly, to some degree. Again, I'm not saying that their option is the only option. I'm just saying that whatever Low was feeling is real. As for Poe, while I didn't fully connect with her, her feelings for Low felt real.

I'm tellling you, I was nervous early on. Anyone could see the writing on the wall not long after their story started. And while there's some predictability in the way the story was laid out and a certain cliché feel to the events, the writing still hooked me in and got me on tenterhooks, right til the end. Somehow the words were still beautiful in all its despair, if that makes sense... I couldn't tell where Mary will take these kids. And while the ending may or may not be to my liking, I appreciate the way she ended it.

This is a first Mary Elizabeth read for me. And it won't be the last.




Author Bio


Mary Elizabeth is an up and coming author who finds words in chaos, writing stories about the skeletons hanging in your closets.

Known as The Realist, Mary was born and raised in Southern California. She is a wife, mother of four beautiful children, and dog tamer to one enthusiastic Pit Bull and a prissy Chihuahua. She's a hairstylist by day but contemporary fiction, new adult author by night. Mary can often be found finger twirling her hair and chewing on a stick of licorice while writing and rewriting a sentence over and over until it's perfect. She discovered her talent for tale-telling accidentally, but literature is in her chokehold. And she's not letting go until every story is told.


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Thanks for dropping by!

~Leftie


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